


treasures

by synergies



Series: fakiru week 2018 [4]
Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: F/M, also some brief platonic ahiru / mytho siblings :'), ft. some dumb fakiru courting shenanigans, some very generic royalty au!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 13:52:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16119803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/synergies/pseuds/synergies
Summary: Sometimes the best things aren't so tangible( But thankfully for her, most of the time they are )





	treasures

### ( things to keep close to your heart )

They’re home.

The news reaches her in a hushed whisper, gossip passed between servants. Princess perks up with excitement ( oh, she would love to go down to the pier and greet them, but that wouldn’t be proper at all! ) Not that Ahiru really cares about being ‘proper’, but she’d rather not get any lectures from her caretakers, no thank you! So she’ll sit and twiddle her fingers and wait (im)patiently instead.

...Or, well, that would be her plan, but honestly? She’s no good at waiting, so she makes some attempt to be productive instead. There’s a letter to Rue that she means to finish, so she has some tea while she works on that, though she’s pretty sure she’s going to have to rewrite it ( Rue might love her, but her writing’s way too all over the place for her to justify being able to put up with, she thinks ).

Letter reminds her of a certain collection of parchments in her desk drawer, which sends her into a giggling fit ( and okay, maybe she’s a little flustered too, just thinking about it— give her a break! She thinks it’s sweet! ) So what if she doesn’t quite get the semantics of a ‘proper courtship’, if that’s what makes him happy then she’ll happily go along with it!

( Really, she thinks that, as the youngest princess, being married to a knight— one of the kingdom’s best, no less— is enough... should be enough! Apparently it is not that simple, and everyone including her knows that, so she’ll sulk and go along with it while she mumbles about how necessary it is ).

* * *

She doesn’t know at what point she ends up dozing off, but she does know that it’s probably pretty late in the afternoon when she wakes up to the sound of knocking on her door. Ahiru leaps up, knocking her chair over in her haste to get up— it’s fine, she’ll get it later— and swings the door open.

“Welcome home!” She throws herself into a hug, grinning up at the prince— Siegfried, her elder brother... and she should probably thank the fact that he’s strong for not sending the two of them to the ground right now. “Didja miss me? I missed you two tons! Oh, and, and! Did you bring me a souvenir?” A little superficial, perhaps... but she knows she can’t ask the questions that she actually wants to ask, like ‘was all the official diplomatic stuff okay’ or ‘did you end up fighting a lot?’ Not because she doesn’t want to, and she certainly wouldn’t hesitate to ask even if she technically shouldn’t, but because she doesn’t know if they’d feel like answering, which is fine with her.

( Speaking of things she technically shouldn’t, she shouldn’t really be acting like this, it was ‘improper’, but she thinks she can act as improper as she wants in the privacy of her own room! )

“Of course I did.” Siegfried chuckles at her ( score! She’ll take getting her brother to laugh at her any day ), and pats her shoulder. “With the rest of my stuff, yes. I’ll bring it by later, okay? I have to take care of some things now that I’m back before I’ll be able to do that.” That’s a satisfactory enough answer for her— she can see he’s doing fine, after all; a hand to stop her before she can even think about throwing herself at the person who’s been keeping to himself.

“Idiot pulled his shoulder, so maybe be a little less... enthusiastic for now.” Fakir shoots a dirty glare in their direction— it’s too late though, Ahiru’s already taken it upon herself to hurry over and get a better look at him while her brother takes the chance to slip out.

“Wh-What happened?” She’s not demanding at all, no— she’s worried, but the softness of her voice makes it clear that an answer is not really necessary. He doesn’t appear to have any visible wounds, which is already one less thing to worry about, but she holds back from being as affectionate as she might’ve been.

There’s a grumble, as he rolls his shoulders back ( as if he’s trying to show that he’s fine, when really, he’s probably just doing it to make it seem alright ), and uses what she presumes is his good arm to pull her into a half hug. “Ambush. We were quicker than them, so we didn’t suffer any huge casualties... the horse got spooked though, and I landed on my shoulder badly when I got thrown off. I’m not supposed to do much work until it’s done healing, but it’s not as bad as he made it seem. But you know how it is, both of you worry too much.”

That makes sense to her, Ahiru thinks, as she sinks into his side with a sigh of relief. “I’m glad... I always worry something’s gonna happen to you two— or anyone else, really. I-It’s kinda silly, I know, but it’s true!”

“It’s not.” Ever to the point, he is— even if it is so blunt that she can’t help but glance up at him curiously. “You are royalty first and foremost. Even though you aren’t the heir, it’s not unusual to want to care about— to love the people you represent. That’s what you learned growing up, right?”

She’s not sure if he’s right or not ( Fakir’s usually right though, and she’s inclined to agree with him about this at least ), but at the very least, she appreciates the sentiment behind it. Which is expressed in the form of her throwing her arms around his neck to kiss him.

“But I love you most of all!”

* * *

“I did get you a gift, by the way.” He breaks the peaceful silence that has settled between them, and her head snaps up almost guiltily.

“Ah! I was joking— you know I was joking about that!” Her tone is somewhat appalled, almost accusatory, but the underlying excitement in her voice does a pretty good job at giving her away. Part of the entire ‘courtship’ thing that she’s been getting used to is receiving gifts ( unfortunately for Fakir, this generally results in her returning the gesture in some way ).

Still, she doesn’t seem to have any complaints when the parcel is dropped into her hands, turning it over in her hands curiously. It’s pretty small ( in the sense that she can hold it in her hands with ease ); and Ahiru’s torn between wanting to rip away the paper quickly to find out what it is, and removing the wrapping nicely. She settles on the later, in case the gift happens to be something more fragile.

Her eyes light up when a pendant drops into her palm, holding the amber jewel up to the light so she can better admire it. “This— I’ve never seen a gem like this one. It’s so pretty!” She tears her gaze away from the ornament to give the other a hard stare. “You didn’t have to spend too much on this, did you?”

( Not that she expects to get a serious answer out of him— the other thing she’s come to expect about his ‘gifts’. Or, ah, general tendency to spoil her, really. Just because she’s royalty doesn’t mean she expects to be treated thusly, but her comments fall on deaf ears ).

“It’s—” He starts and cuts himself off, before starting again after several moments. “Not terribly so, no. Figured you’d like the warm color.”

“I did— I do! It’s really, really nice, a-and I’ll wear it... well, maybe not every day, but a lot of days! Promise!” She only cuts her ramblings off because she can hear him stifling a snicker at her.

“I got it, okay? You don’t need to promise anything.” But she can see one of his small smiles, so she knows he’s happy, and if they’re both happy, then what else matters?

“But—!” She can’t help but laugh a little as she speaks. “I’ve already promised you a lot, so what’s one more thing going to matter!” The low sound of his chuckling blends in with her giggles and, ah—

It’s moments like these that are the true treasure.


End file.
